Donate Today To: Help families in crisis, Create opportunities for our youth, and Resolve conflicts in the community

December 27, 2017

Dear Friends, Supporters, and Colleagues,

When you donate to Community Mediation Services, you become an integral part of the support network of thousands of individuals that come through our doors every year. You help members of our community get back on their feet, take control of their lives, peacefully resolve conflicts, and become the best versions of themselves.

Your donation is a direct investment in the lives of youth, families, and individuals in Queens and throughout NYC. As we move forward in 2018, we need your support more than ever! Donations of $50, $100, $250, or greater can make a huge difference!

Your donation helps us work with families to navigate complex issues and resolve conflicts between parents and children. A great example is our work with a teen and her parents in our Family Empowerment Program over the past year. The family was having difficulty managing the stress of trying to figure out why their daughter had seemingly lost interest in school and hobbies. We worked with each family member individually, conducted group therapy sessions, paired their teen daughter with a college mentor, and had her join one of our teen support groups. The results have been fantastic! She has improved her performance at school, joined the NYPD’s Law Enforcement Explorers Program, earned a summer youth internship position, and now volunteers as an advisor for a group studying issues impacting young girls.

We need your help to create more opportunities for young men like Jordan and Brian – two participants in our Youth Justice Programs – who were able to travel to Los Angeles this past fall to continue their participation in the National Create Justice Conference. The conference provided opportunities for discourse and networking with their peers, as well as policy makers, around the intersection of juvenile justice, legislative action, and creative pursuits.

*Brian speaking to a crowd of adult advocates about his experience working with youth in the juvenile justice system here in Queens (photo credit to Rachel Symons, from the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange).

Supporting CMS increases the level of trainings provided to volunteer mediators and enhances our ability to work with NYPD and the Neighborhood Community Officers to heighten the use of mediation in order to prevent future disputes from requiring police attention.

Your contribution supplies the resources we need to continue to develop caring and nurturing after-school and summer camp programming. Programming that provides youth with valuable hours of instruction, academic reinforcement, and pro-social activities (such as dance, art, and music) in a bully free zone where kids can feel free to be themselves.

Your donation also help us provide MetroCards, interview attire, and cultural enrichment opportunities to young adults in our justice programs, in order to develop concrete pathways to employment, training, and educational opportunities.

Your support is doing all of these things and more for vulnerable people in some of the borough’s most disadvantaged communities. Thank you so much in advance for supporting our mission to help those grappling with life’s challenges to build skills and assets that create a brighter future!